Campaigns like It’s On Us, from the White House, and HeForShe, launched by Emma Watson as part of her UN ambassadorship, are part of a cultural shift toward recognizing that women’s rights can’t be considered in a vacuum.

Reproductive justice is about human rights, including the right to have children, the right not to have children, and the right to parent the children we have in safe and healthy environments. This week at the United Nations, South Africa Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini focused on reproductive justice as a global framework.

Vatican officials appeared Monday before the United Nations Committee on Torture to discuss the sexual abuse of children by priests, claiming the Holy See lacks juridical power to combat the problem on an international basis.

Last year, Republican senators, led by far-right ideologues Michael Farris and Rick Santorum, defeated ratification of a UN treaty based on the Americans With Disabilities Act. Will they succeed again this year?

Why is the right rejecting a treaty that has the potential to improve the lives of millions of people with disabilities around the world? Because of women’s reproductive health and the perceived weakening of parental rights and U.S. primacy.

This week, an international team of experts, in conjunction with the WHO and the UN Environment Programme, released a report declaring hormone-disrupting chemicals a “global threat” that should be addressed.

Culture is one of the most sensitive aspects of people’s lives, particularly as it relates to sexual and reproductive behavior, attitudes, and norms. Therefore, when we talk about female circumcision (I still cannot call it mutilation), we should always look at this cultural practice as one of many good and bad things that happen to women universally, and not only to African women but women worldwide.